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10 CapitalPress.com March 3, 2017 Washington State Farm Bureau joins suit Road closures delay potato planting against pay, sick leave law By MATTHEW WEAVER WASH. Capital Press 260 Lower Monumental Dam FRANKLIN Richland 82 e R iv 395 240 Pasco N BENTON 5 miles 82 er 124 Sn Ice Harbor Dam 12 Kennewick C 730 Widespread road closures due to flooding er U.S. DEPT. OF ENERGY HANFORD SITE Touchet Ri v The Washington Farm Bu- reau and other business groups are suing to overturn the initia- tive that raised the minimum wage and mandated paid sick leave, pointing to a 2016 state Supreme Court ruling to bolster their claim the double-barreled measure is unconstitutional. The lawsuit contends Ini- tiative 1433 imposed two poli- cies. Washington’s constitution limits initiatives to one subject, an article the high court cited last year in voiding a tax-cut- ting measure sponsored by Tim Eyman. Farm Bureau CEO John Stuhlmiller said Friday that he hopes the Supreme Court will apply the same reasoning to I-1433, though he acknowl- edged it’s been a long time since the high court sided with his organization. “That weighs heavily on Kahlotus Mesa ak Capital Press 261 17 ver i a Ri By DON JENKINS suit in Kittitas County Superi- or Court. I-1433 failed in the Central Washington county and it’s where the suit’s lead plain- tiff, hay farmer and exporter Brad Haberman, lives. Haber- man is second vice president of the Farm Bureau. Kittitas County farmer Mark Charlton and Chelan County farmer Bill Wirth also are plaintiffs, along with the trade groups funding the lawsuit. The state has yet to fi le a response, an attorney general’s offi ce spokesman said. The Farm Bureau has high- lighted the case’s similarities to the challenge to Eyman’s I-1366. I-1366 required lawmakers to either cut the sales tax or hold a public vote on amending the constitution to make future tax increases tougher. In defending the initiative, the attorney gen- eral’s offi ce argued the measure was demanding the Legislature take just one action. A King County judge ruled the measure violated the one-subject rule and also sought to amend the state con- stitution through unconstitu- tional means. 21 Connell o lu mb Groups go to court to test initiative’s constitutionality everybody’s mind,” he said. “Candidly, I don’t want to go to the Supreme Court for any- thing.” I-1433 passed statewide in November with 57 percent of the vote, but failed in every county east of the Cascades. Several Western Washington counties also voted against the measure, but it won by lopsided margins in the most populous Puget Sound counties. The initiative was championed by unions and community activ- ists. Gov. Jay Inslee collected signatures to qualify it for the ballot. After I-143 passed, former Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge approached business groups about challenging the initiative. Talmadge referred questions to Patrick Connor, state director of the Nation- al Federation of Independent Business. “There was substantial con- versation about the likelihood of success, but ultimately we decided the challenge was worth the time and cost,” Con- nor said. Talmadge launched the challenge this month by fi ling With about 170,000 acres of potatoes to plant, many farmers in the Columbia Ba- sin face delays caused by fl ooding and road closures, a potato industry leader says. Planting typically begins around this time, said Dale Lathim, executive director of the Potato Growers of Wash- ington, but almost no fi eld work has been done yet. Frozen ground caused by the colder winter combined with rain and snow melt has caused fl ooding across the region. Lathim is particularly con- cerned about the impact of road closures and restrictions in Franklin County and, to a lesser extent, Benton and Grant counties. Spring fl ooding washed out some roads or made the road- beds unstable. The county has set load restrictions until the dirt roads fi rm up. It’s unusually widespread through Franklin County, with load restrictions on almost ev- ery road that isn’t all-season, Lathim said. “As you can imagine, a 10-wheeler loaded with potato seed is quite heavy and would far exceed the load restric- 395 Area in detail WALLA WALLA 125 Walla Walla College Place 12 Wash. Ore. 11 Capital Press graphic tions,” he said. “It’s going to cause a logistical issue.” Some seed-cutting opera- tions are not on all-season roads, Lathim said. “With the roads the way they are, even if the fi elds were ready to go, we’d have a hard time getting seed to them right now,” Lathim said. “We don’t know how long it’s going to be until they’re operational and usable.” Growers will try to fi nd a way to work around the clo- sures, possibly using fi eld roads instead of county roads, he said. Farmers typically stagger planting. When the soil be- comes ready, a crop that normal- ly would have been planted over three weeks will be planted at the same time. It will be diffi cult for fertilizer and chemical com- panies to service all the acres at once, Lathim said. Harvest will likely not be af- fected, Lathim said. “It will be the weather be- tween when we plant and har- vest that will determine that, moreso than the actual planting date,” he said. Conservation district growing urban ag network By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press 9-1/#4N SPOKANE — The Spo- kane Conservation District is developing a network as a way to connect urban farmers with one another. Pat Munts, small farm and acreage coordinator for Wash- ington State University Ex- tension in Spokane County, is directing the effort. “It would pull togeth- er all the groups and people who have been working for years on lit- tle, individ- ual projects Pat Munts scattered all over the place, so we can communicate about who has what resourc- es, who needs what resourc- es,” Munts said. The group will advocate for urban agriculture and re- lated issues the public needs to think about, Munts said. The Spokane City Council and Mayor David Condon are already showing support for the project. Munts considers urban agriculture in several levels: backyard gardeners growing vegetables for personal use, those raising small livestock such as chickens, goats, pigs and sheep; and those raising vegetables on a city lot to sell at a farmers’ market. The last category is proba- bly the least developed idea so far, she said. “That part is going to take a lot more development at this point,” she said. “We have a few, but there’s a lot of things we have to work out with the city about what lots would be available, how would we get water to them, is the soil quality up to what it needs to be?” Urban farmers need the skills to operate in an urban area, including dealing with different “critters” running around — “four-footed and two-footed,” Munts said — and city land use ordinances about management. So far, roughly 25 people are attending meetings. The district received a $47,000 grant from the Na- tional Association of Conser- vation Districts last year to encourage urban ag conser- vation improvements, such as water and soil management. Contact Munts at pmunts@ spokanecounty.org or 509- 477-2173.
